Web Video Companies Push Branded Entertainment Over Media

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How many branded entertainment deals can any one brand actually make? That’s a question some media executives are asking now that the glare has faded from the dozens of NewFronts and TV upfronts held over the past several weeks. With TV’s share of the advertising pie seemingly vulnerable in 2015, many of the top Web outlets smell a big opportunity to steal some ad budgets -- which explains why there were 33 NewFronts in total. That’s why it was curious that at so many of the those events, digital media companies from BuzzFeed to Fullscreen to Stylehaul were pushing branded entertainment as their core offering to advertisers.

In fact, many MCNs almost treated selling media space as secondary to selling marketers on producing video content that either prominently features their products or is produced entirely on behalf of a marketer. That trend was in direct contrast to the TV networks, who, even as they preached data, were primarily offering ad space alongside TV shows that reach millions of viewers. If the Web video industry is hoping that major marketers decide to move ad dollars from TV to online video in big chunks in 2015, isn’t branded entertainment–and its perceived highly customized, not-so-scalable nature–a tough way to go about it?


Web Video Companies Push Branded Entertainment Over Media